The future is ours to see, and plan.

 

 The future is ours to see, and plan.

We all know the feeling of being forced to work and do things we do not approve of doing or wouldn’t do. We have a system that works, and none of us are willing to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery. It’s our economy.

A young person finishes grade 12 and needs to find a way to make a living. If he or she is not intellectually inclined, they go to work mostly for lower wages. The best students go to university. A few parents can finance the studies while most can’t. The young person borrows money to secure a better future. They start their working lives with debt that from graduation on is accumulating interest. If they find a job in their field, they will work for years to pay for their education and will try hard not to make waves. Jobs are not exactly waiting for them.

Both the university-educated and those who are not will be offered credit cards, easily borrowed money, and be pelted with advertising. “Fly now and pay later”. By the time that my generation often bought a house and began to save for retirement, today’s young people are in debt, often working in situations that they don’t enjoy but must endure.

Yet our kids are living in a reality that most people in the world envy. Many receive help from us, the older generation who lived in a better situation, received better wages, and knew not to get into debt over their heads. We often have old-age pensions, homes that are paid for, and some savings. This is not the reality that our kids are living in.

However, they are managing not too bad. Here there is Canadian Health-Care, a reasonable social safety net, self-improvement programs, and above all cheap imported foods and goods. The country is at peace and the infrastructure that we the elders built for them is holding. Every few years there is an economic crash and austerity-centred governments rip the floor from under them, but they make it.

It is not the same in the countries that are home to most of the world’s population. Those are the countries that enable us to have our lifestyle. When we colonized them we built our prosperity on their resources and now we use their cheap labour. Life here is not as good as fifty years ago, but it is the envy of most humans. That is why we have such pressure at all of our borders from refugees clamouring to get in.  

Most of us look at the people in poor places with disdain and say, you screwed up your place and now you are trying to come here and take what is ours, which we built by hard work. Please go to those places and look beyond the tourist places. Don’t expect it to be easy. Those “poor countries” guard their secrets.

You can easily see the rich people from China, India, wherever, but you will not see the people who work to produce all the cheap goods that we buy with plastic money. It is very easy to see now during the pandemic how we enjoy the products of modern slave labour and why we don’t buy Canadian or local.

Consider the masks and gloves that we use for protection. Mostly they are used for a short time and discarded. If they were produced here, they would be much more expensive. Or consider what you pay for vegetables in the supermarket. If we had to pay Canadian wages to our young people to produce it for ourselves, prices would double or more.

The CBC sent a team to Malaysia to investigate the manufacturing of disposable gloves. They found workers from Bangladesh and Nepal working for as little as $2.00 a day, in dangerous appalling conditions. The workers borrow money to get the jobs and endure abuse regularly.

Other Media outlets investigated the conditions of the Uyghur (Xinjiang) people working in China while being “re-educated,” forced to abandon their religion and way of life. The average Canadian looks at the smuggled recordings depicting rapes and beatings of those who produce what we need with skepticism. We find it impossible to believe how badly humans can be abused to benefit us.

There is good and bad in every corner of the world. Right now we see some countries with authoritarian regimes winning, the most visible is China. They developed a mixture of Capitalism and Communism that works in today’s environment but suppresses their people.

We watch with dismay the Chinese economy doing much better than our Western economies. We see on the news that Wuhan where Covid first struck had no new cases for months and life is back to normal. China also spends most in the world to reduce pollution. I still don’t recommend Communism or authoritarian Capitalism.

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I wearily watch here in my community a conflict building up between farmers, ranchers, and coal miners. The miners wouldn’t do well without food and the farmers without water or steel produced from coal. Why are the two hurting each other while the hotheads amongst them happily throw fuel on the fire? It is our idea of competition, which is based on winning. Competition could be different. Economics can be built to improve our lives instead of destroying them. We just have to pay the cost.

Both groups of people desperately need each other here in southern Alberta. What we need is a way to go forward without hurting each other, even if there is a cost attached. We can do it with proper planning and some effort, but profits will be reduced for the financiers who currently benefit from low taxes, a safe central well-serviced location, and an educated workforce.

Our young people deserve a good world and should learn the benefits of co-operation and the security that comes from living in a caring country where everyone is benefiting from their work. Ranchers and miners should be on the same team.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

The power of believing.

 

 The power of believing.

The teacher in school gave us a form to take home for parents to sign to allow us to take swimming lessons. My class was ecstatic, and we all talked about nothing else but swimming. The teacher also told us it was a life skill and that many people have been saved from drowning since the Red Cross developed a learn to swim program. She also explained how swimming is one of the best physical exercises suitable even for people with health problems. I was sold on the idea and gave my mom the form. She put it away……………

I asked her if I will be allowed to go with my friends and she said no. My world crumbled in front of my eyes. Why mom? I said with tears choking me and she said. When I was young, I went playing on the frozen river and fell through the ice. Some people saved me, but it was the most horrible thing that happened to me. I am scared especially about you son since you have medical problems and you are not very strong.

I am strong mom I cried and swimming makes you stronger. I don’t want to risk losing you she said. But if I know how to swim, I will be able to save myself if… and she replied, sorry son, I don’t BELIEVE your teacher and I don’t trust some young lifeguard to watch you properly. My class went, and I stayed in the school office doing some boring homework instead of swimming.

It wasn’t until I was 18 when I could go learn how to swim without my parents’ permission, and I did. I BELIEVED my teacher. Two years later I was a lifeguard, had the highest swimming qualifications, and made recreation my career choice. My body responded, and I became much healthier than I ever was. It taught me that belief can be good but also can be terrible.

I was born in the cradle of the most popular religious beliefs, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I was young when I realized that those were BELIEFS, and often the only difference between them was what people believed. Yet being a child of the second half of the twentieth century, I soon discovered that there was something that we all had to believe the same and that was science. We base science on proven facts and disputes are solved by proving things that could be repeatedly proven and peer-reviewed.

I am a great proponent of faith and beliefs and know the significant role they play in human destiny. What people believe determines what happens to us in life. However, it has to be verifiable, and not make-believe theory. One can’t just say I believe and it will materialize.

I watch the people who see folks dying obviously from a communicable disease and say that they don’t believe it. Their BELIEF is as good as murder. They also happen to be a group that is less affected by the particular virus for the time being. I see folks fighting against wearing protective masks and refusing the hard-earned vaccine. They BELIEVE it is going to change their DNA, or that microchips embedded in it will make them lose their imagined freedom. Their actions directly cause the deaths of the elders who built a beautiful world for them, but they don’t care.

Others are ignoring an immense body of accumulated evidence that the earth is warming up thanks to the amount of carbon we inject into the air. Instead of making an effort to stop it, they personally benefit from inventing ways to delay action. Again, selfish reasons dictate their BELIEFS. Others yet advocate building more superweapons and invest in companies that manufacture the mega killing machines.

The worst of all are the enemies from within who pose as investors and skim most profits and benefits from the productivity of the low-paid workers who produce wealth. Those watch essential workers live in objective poverty and convince them with targeted marketing to vote against their own interests. We are used to seeing a few collect millions enjoying food provided by many others who earn starvation wages. We BELIEVE that the lucky few work harder or are smarter in some ways. We don’t BELIEVE that farmers, ranchers, servers, and cashiers work hard or have important qualities. Well, science reveals that there is no physical difference between the lucky and the poor.

People don’t choose where they are born nor the colour of their skin or the social standing of birth families. Some of us choose to be moral while others don’t. Some choose to help others and others to take advantage of the less lucky. That depends upon what we BELIEVE.

Some chose to work towards making the world a better place for most or all, while others BELIEVE that caring for others is a weakness. Many BELIEVE that they were born into privileges prepared for them by their ancestors. Others KNOW that their place in the world was taken away from them and with it all its resources. Some First Nations still dispute the fact that natural resources should belong to Her Majesty instead of to them.

The argument is that the original people in most places didn’t develop the resources. Mind you, those who now own resources often hired others to develop them. Anyone can do that, but mostly they need a powerful army to take it over. Is taking what you can by strength legal? Depends on who is making the laws. Even more, depends on what we BELIEVE.

I know that what I BELIEVE will not change the world. Some will call me a dreamer. Yet I BELIEVE that if enough people will change their BELIEFS, we may yet have a better world, preserve what is most beautiful, and together will end wars, help all the children, make life wonderful for the hard-working mothers, and whatever else we can dream of.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

New Year, old problems.

 

New Year, old problems.

We will set the year 2020 in memory as one of the worst that people like me will remember. A few fireworks lit up the sky above our beloved mountain towns, and people will remember being alone during the holidays. Some will feel blessed that worst didn’t happen, but we know that so many suffered more than their share. The economy has been depressed for a few years, many lost their parents and grandparents, and the younger folks are struggling. Some must work in constant danger, (my daughter is a nurse) some work from home while playing teachers and child caregivers, and others simply lost jobs and businesses. This is made worst by all of us knowing some people who decided not to believe that there is a problem and are going around proudly spreading conspiracy theories and germs. That is their way to do “positive thinking” while spreading the killer virus.

The president of the United States was chief rumour spreader, and by the end of the year, over 300,000 of his people were buried. Here in Alberta, we found ourselves short on hospital staff with those still working demoralized by the news that they may lose their jobs as soon as things improve. If anyone cares for my opinion, we are suffering from poor management on top of the pandemic.

The new year started with a crisis in the capital of our big neighbours. A mob was set up by the outgoing president to attempt an armed coup. They failed, but five people died. My parents used to talk about revolutions. Their parents saw the Russian Communist revolution, and they suffered first hand from the Nazis’ takeover of Germany. I am scared of events like those. As the first month of 2021 is rolling by and I see the combination of pandemic and bad management seriously impacting my beloved province, I wonder if we are safe and if people reach their limits. I don’t know how it can play within the Canadian establishment, but there are ominous signs of trouble.

I came to Alberta from Israel, so I always compare the two. Israel 22,145 sq. Kilometers, 9 million people, half are original Palestinians, no natural resources, and the constant danger of war. Alberta 661,800 sq. km, less than 4 million people and lots of resources chief amongst them oil which we always knew will run out. The province has no concerns about defence and receives or contribute to the national welfare depending on need. Why is it that Alberta is not feeling on top of the world? We were set up to do so by our greatest Premier fifty years ago.

The problem as I said is bad management. We had a temporary injection of wealth and could have been the best economy in the free world. What we did instead is sold ourselves to oil interests, ignoring the future. We had oil locked up in sand, knew that it was expensive to produce, and unwisely placed all our eggs in one basket, thinking that we would be able to force the world to buy it. We were in such a hurry to make a quick buck that we failed to ensure that there would be a way to transport it to markets.

Bad speculation followed us. Towards the end of the 2020 disaster year, we invested the last of our savings financing a pipeline from the oilsands to the bottom of the continent while knowing that the soon to come US elections can render the project bankrupt. We set our revenue back by earlier tax cuts (not for me) and in my local community, we are facing a conflict between ranchers and miners.

The pandemic made us face other problems not unique to just us. We either shut down the economy now or lose vast amounts of money, and lives, later. If we stop the economy and not help people and small businesses, there is going to be hell to pay. Any help that would have been available from the Federal government in normal times will have to be reduced since all the provinces and territories are in the same dire straits. You can’t squeeze money from a rock.

I watch 2021 beginning and I fear that the last year may have not only been a terrible year but could be the beginning of a real test. What I need is some sign of hope. Like people who struggled with addictions, I realize that there are steps a person must take before healing.

First, you must hit bottom. We did. Next, you acknowledge that there is a problem and accept responsibility. Later you realize that you must make some changes or suffer to death. Well, it sounds harsh.

I don’t want to be ranting and demoralizing people, so I look for that silver lining in the dark clouds. It is always there if you look hard and long enough.

The pandemic will be over when enough people will be immunized. We only have to be careful and stay alive until we beat it. Then we have to deal with the problems that we caused in the last thirty to fifty years. Namely, we kind of have to go on a diet and get away from an unsustainable way of living. I say “we” but I mean those of us who took so much that the working people can’t sustain.

It is not impossible or even very difficult. There are countries that do it, and we can fly over and see with our own eyes. I go to popular tourist places just like the rest of you, and I meet people from other places. Two years ago I was talking to some Germans in Waterton.

They are comparable to my wife and I, working middle-class people, but they enjoy benefits that we can only dream of.

We can have an easier life if we only demand that our governments will look after our interests first and be less concerned with corporate profits. As simple as that.

A new economy may rise from COVID.

 

 A new economy may rise from COVID.

Spending Christmas without family and friends is new to me, but I thank the stars, or God, for my faithful companion in life, which I am blessed to have. I feel so sad about all the people who lately lost their companions because of the raging pandemic and other causes. I look at my many emails and identify some from people who wish to convince me that there is no problem and we should live life taking no action to slow the microscopic killer beasts off. Rage fills me hearing that the kids will go to school. The government is worried about their mental health or wish to allow their mothers to work. It’s now a contest between the economy and lives, mostly of the elderly, but spread by the young. Well, I didn’t run for any political office so I don’t have a right to complain, or do I?

All the people I know are wishing for the world to return “back to normal.” It upsets me since I don’t think that it will, ever. The last event I remember from before the pandemic was a raging community meeting in which the town people were trying to figure out how to stop the government from chasing away the rural medical staff by cutting their income. Some were worried about losing regional hospitals in the countryside. The world that we wish to go back to is changing and people were ready to fight. And then COVID came.

Our society is obsessed with saving lives. People spend a lot of money on looking for cures and discovering ways to prolong life. Some are very concerned with the lives of the unborn, but much less with those existing already. There is always pressure to save the lives of the rich and pressure to restrict care for the general population. Now, much of the general population is essential workers. Economics is often cited as a reason for the discrepancy. Economics also plays a major role in people’s ability to stay healthy and alive.

I look around and I see us managing to exist while a significant portion of the economy is shut down. That makes me reassess our priorities. I remember the last few elections here and everywhere. Aspiring politicians in our time always play the “jobs card.” Yet how many jobs do we must-have for us to survive?

A year into the pandemic we see that we can do many jobs from home. We can do a large portion of services over the internet and we already see that much of the manufacturing can be performed by robots. It will not be long before most “jobs” from the past will be mechanized. A few people with modern equipment can perform what used to employ thousands of people. We employ a large cheap labour force overseas to produce stuff that is used for a short time and fills up our garbage dumps.

Governments and large corporations employ people for political reasons but many folks do unsatisfying often useless work. You can tell who when they quote repeatedly: TGIF. “Creating” jobs is mostly not very useful. Yet we believe that if you don’t force people to work by impoverishing them, they will only stay intoxicated on the couch.

For as long as we have written records, there are stories of slavery. We used to buy and sell slaves and whip them to make them work, so we don’t believe that there is another way. We used to strap children at schools, yet now the children learn a lot more without corporal punishment. Husbands used to beat wives regularly and now we quit and they willingly do more than their husbands.

The other popular belief is that people will cheat to have free food and shelter instead of working. Some will. Yet from personal experience, I vouch that most will not. Our saving grace in the future, when there will be no more jobs for most people, is that they will develop small businesses and work for pride and to serve others. All we have to do is dig up the history of our great grandparents, and we will have ample examples of people working hard for very little money.

All we need to do is cut off the manufacturing of “build to fail” items, things that are cheaper to buy than to make or fix, and we will see a new economy emerge. My mother knitted my sweaters for free, and I still use some of them. It is the nature of humans to be productive if no one forces them to.

I think that it is completely possible to build an economy around honest work and reasonable pay. People wish to serve each other and make things that others will be happy to use and will last for a lifetime.

I strongly believe that we can build a new economy much different from the one that collapsed when COVID arrived. By maximizing our technology, we will reduce the need for labour. Laws could make it illegal to build things that are designed to fail. Reducing Marketing can eliminate our desires for useless goods and manufactured pleasures such as travelling pointlessly. Less marketing of unhealthy fast foods and needless medications will improve our health and reduce health care expenses. It will also make us spend less on ever-changing fashions of clothing, home “improvements” and vehicles.

Overall, we could build an economy that will provide the most critical needs and wonderful services for a fraction of what we have been paying. Our taxes could be reduced and we can sustain all of us cheaply and see if people will not work when they are not forced to. I bet that most will.

A few will suffer from addictions, a few will not contribute by working, while some will be criminals, but most will find ways to serve. It’s in our human nature. We have a big problem with COVID and another with political systems. It is possible that we will come out of it better than we were before. We will serve instead of win.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Peace on Earth.

 

Peace on Earth.

It’s a week before Christmas and I am locked in at home spared the pains of shopping on credit cards and all the rest of holiday rituals. It gives me time to think about the Jewish baby that was born destined to spread a message of peace, love, and hope. The airwaves are ringing with songs about Santa, Rudolf, elves, and gifts. Amazon is predicting huge profits and folks dressed up like Eskimos are dreaming about a vaccine that will allow them to return to “normal” perhaps without jobs and homes but, what the heck. They can say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.

I call my wife “my gift from God.” I don’t give platitudes, I truly mean it. Yet in the fifty years or so that we have spent together, we probably sparred or had arguments at least every two days. When I asked her once what she hopes heaven will be like, she said, I hope in heaven there will be peace. Why ask for peace instead of living in peace I asked? And a new argument erupted.

I agree with the idea that peace is the most precious thing on earth and possibly the hardest to get. I have two cats at home and we love those little animals dearly. They have everything a cat could dream of and there is enough food, space, and comfort toys for 10 cats, but they fight. The stronger male hunts the female and chases her away from the good places, including the litter box. I get after him and my wife gets defensive on his behalf, so we fight.

I look around the world knowing that we live in the most peaceful time in history. It has been seventy-plus years since the last big war and the weapon manufacturers are not happy about it. Almost all fights I am aware of start because someone can make more money on fighting than on peace.

We exist in relative peace, yet there are wars all around us where people really get killed, children starve and homes are wrecked. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Yemen, Miramar, most South American countries, most African countries, large cities in the United States, all have small or large wars going on.

My friends and I go on vacation to foreign places, see the tourist places and take a tour to the safe areas of poor countries assuming that they are backward and need better political systems. We never see the truth. We only see what is shown to us. When we meet the poor people who came here as immigrants we see them humble, trying to learn our ways and survive here the best they can.

To truly “know” what the other people are like, we must go deeper.

There are billions of people who do not have our wealth and all that comes from having it. The poor can’t go on vacations but they see what we enjoy on TVs, and even on the screens of little smartphones. They know that living day to day, not knowing if there will be food tomorrow, is unnecessary. They “know” that they work hard but can’t be sure about the next meal, that their kids don’t receive education and there is no help when they get sick and die. They think that we also “know” it and enjoy feeling superior to them. They hate the fact that we have clean water and they don’t since our corporations polluted it.

In my day, I met many of those who were not lucky enough to be born rich. Many, including me, were born into poverty, often in rich countries. I also met people who were well off and lost it all, sometimes in wars. The poor are not stupid, not lazy nor greedy, they only want to live. They want their kids and aging parents not to suffer and die. In an attempt to save their lives they imitate those who do well and often become greedy lying cheats and the war goes on. You can’t find genuine love amongst the very rich. They don’t know if it’s not faked for a price.

I had the “privilege” to be around those who do not need to worry about food for tomorrow or even a pension for old age. I smiled and showered platitudes like the rest of them and pretended to be somewhat better than the unwashed masses. I studied the Christmas story theoretically but didn’t learn a thing. Powerful folks always wish to maintain peace while the underprivileged are a threat to them. The weak learn how to join forces and beat those who oppress them. When they do, they don’t stop and everyone changes places. The cards are shuffled and a new game begins. So how can we obtain “Peace on Earth?” Half of my Christmas cards this year mention PEACE.

Instead of trying to figure out how to cheat to get ahead of others, we could see where we can help, especially those who can’t payback.

People learn by imitating, even animals do. When we do the right thing, we feel good and others copy. It starts like a pandemic, in one little place, and spreads. It is slow in the beginning, but huge later on. Remember the song “we are the world we are the children?”

This year we have the opportunity to spend some time thinking and evaluating what we learned, even from an awful experience. We start with thoughts, go-to words, and perform actions.

My wish for this quarantine Christmas is that in some little mountain towns, like Bethlehem, the message of the divine baby will take hold and spread, infecting maskers and anti maskers alike. Little acts of kindness go around this world just as fast as wars.

Humans will now go through the most significant change ever. We must make it positive or destroy ourselves. Accept the teachings of the one named Emmanuel.

Joy and Peace for the new year.

The star of 2020.

 

 The star of 2020.

 

The year 2020 will be remembered in history as a time that the world changed. We remember the year 1 as the year of the birth of our Lord. Those who lived in that year remembered it as the year of the big star, which later became known as the star of Beit Lechem.

Beit Lechem (House of bread) was a tiny hamlet within walking distance from Jerusalem, itself an insignificant capital city of a strange little nation that worshipped one invisible God. In it was a temple with priests offering ritual sacrifices, and artworks that strangely didn’t include any reference to the physical attributes of that God. All other religions at the time had statues of Gods. The one visible sign in the temple was a light that always burned, called the eternal flame. There were people in Babylon who maintained a fire in a Zoroastrian temple and before that an Egyptian religion where God was simply “light” Ra was its name. There is a pyramid for Ra.

The star which led the three Magi (wise men) from Persia to Judea is really a conjunction of two bright planets visible from earth, and it’s very rare. The last one happened in the year 1226 before the death of the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. He changed the church, bringing it back to the Christian ideal of helping the poor and revering nature, instead of being money and power-oriented.

This year 2020, on December 21st, the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn will line up and one brilliant light will be visible for about an hour in the South-West sky above the horizon. We, mountain people, may have to find a vantage point to see the historic phenomenon. (Perhaps from the parking lot of The Interpretive Centre.)  Depending upon interpretation, it should be visible for about five days before or after the winter solstice. It is three days after the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and three days before the Christian Christmas.

2020 will be remembered for many things. It is the first time that a sitting president of the USA is trying to challenge the democratic system of the Union, risking turmoil or even civil war. Also, that president was impeached and continued serving.  It is a year in which oil price-wars demolished economies around the world with low prices. 2020 saw some of the worst bush and forest fires, especially in California and Australia. Social rebellion and demonstrations achieved new levels, with the Black Lives Matter being the largest ever. A none white woman was elected to be US Vice President.  Canada suffered large demonstrations of First Nations protesting the government and corporations deciding who leads the aboriginal nations and make deals on their behalf. The gap between rich corporations, small businesses, and wage earners continued to grow at an alarming rate. The crucial event was and is COVID-19 arriving in the west soon after the year started.

It was politicized almost from the get-go with the political Left wanting to follow scientific and medical advice to reduce transmission and the political Right denying its severity, wanting to keep the economy from being set back.

Some countries in the far east and south took appropriate measures and controlled the spread of the virus to some great degree. They are now at the end of the year, mostly back to normal. They also suffered a minimal number of cases and only a few deaths. The richer countries were more worried about their economies and experienced more severe outcomes. Others ignored the threat and suffered a lot.

The virus attacked randomly but killed more people from the older generation and spread faster where more people live or work close to each other. In short order, the infected populations exhausted their ability to look after the sick or even deal with dead people.

Here in Alberta, an early short-term shutdown took the edge off the spread for a while, but forces beyond our control worked against us. The internet was effectively used to spread conspiracy theories claiming that there is no real threat, and the virus is a hoax. Being a strong right-wing society, many people chose to not follow the warnings and enjoy life as if there is no problem at all. The threat to older people didn’t motivate many younger folks to be cautious, and large numbers infected each other very fast.

As December arrived, the government was left with two choices. Do nothing and be like the US or shut down. Shutting down for the Christmas period was the worst time for little businesses and all Alberta’s working people and the faith communities. Now people face personal economic devastation unless the government steps in with serious monetary aid. Not taking action when there was time was the most costly choice.

The government tried to blame the advice of the chief medical officer, a woman named Dr. Hinshaw, but recordings leaked of her giving advice that may not have been followed. A political disaster that can’t be hushed left us scared and at each other’s throats.

Humans will survive the year 2020, but what happened once could happen again or things can change and improve above what we can imagine. There is a star bringing a feeling of hope. We could blame China or a smart lady Doctor, or we could replace peoples’ losses and wages as Japan, Norway, Germany, France, England, and Italy do. (80% - 100%.) It is up to us.

What do I wish for O Lord? A world where no child, white, yellow, brown, red, or any colour will suffer. There is no child who through selfishness and greed caused our problems. Let them not suffer for our mistakes.

Overall, I see that 2020 has been good to teach us things we must learn. The star of Christmas may be a sign in the heavens that a change for the good is coming.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Aliens coming to Earth.

 Aliens coming to Earth.

A friend asked me a question. If the earth was visited by humanoid aliens who possess the technical ability to come here, what would they think about us, our politics, economy, and above all religions. My friend obviously believes that people advanced technologically would not believe in Gods. The educated intellectuals look down on religious people since there is no scientific proof of God.

I imagined a story of an alien describing us. He said: The Earth humans are physically a copy of us, but mentally deficient, perhaps not yet fully developed. They aren’t cognizant of their powers other than physical manipulation of material matter. I will elaborate later under “religion.”

Humans are extremely competitive. They all but exterminated the other large species on the planet, keeping only those that they can subdue and raise as food. It seems as if they are trying to do it with each other. Only in their case, they want the labour, not the flesh of each other. Many enjoy hurting others. They named the action “sadistic.”

Through military might and later regulated economy some rose above others, harnessed mass followings, and compete for complete domination of the planet. They have a serious problem understanding that they are all components of one big body or machine. In other words, they don’t see how interconnected they are. For an unknown reason, they are mostly motivated by selfish individualism, even when it hinders their chances of survival.

Humans have learned how to harness artificial power to do some work they need to be done. They are doing it in the most wasteful ways, completely unaware that in a short time they will run out of the resources they must have. They depend on future inventions, but have no plan that will see them safely survive on the only planet available to them. Their idea of time unrelated to speed, energy, and space is unique amongst beings similar to us.  

They made themselves dependent on exhaustible food supplies and waste more than what they use. It seems as if some human groups are wasting all they can while others are fighting for the scraps and are stressed to the point of extinction for lack of basic needs.

The people, as they call themselves in their most universal language, do not realize that the most abundant resources on Earth are finite and take time to regenerate. They show no concern over depleting the air, water, and soil of their planet. Their machines allowed them to overly exploit the most important elements that they require for physical life and they show no sign of concern.

Weapons production on Earth is an enormous industry. From primitive to nuclear, they produce enough to kill themselves many times over. All of their weapons are meant for wars amongst themselves, and none could provide defence from attack originating outside the Earth. I could conquer their world with the craft I am in if I wished.

Humans are divided by skin pigmentation and what they call religions, which reflect their views of a supreme being called God, Spirit, or messengers from such. Some small groups have other variations. The religions seem to be connected to economic aspects and mixed or used by the most powerful amongst them.

One God messenger or “Son of God” gave them directions of how to be more like we are, but they never developed the proper language to fully explain his teachings. Another “Prophet” managed to unite some major religions seven hundred years later. Each time the religions became attached to some groups or races and rejected by others leading to wars.

Their education is severely rudimentary and available most readily to higher classes or what they assume to be a more worthy race or tribe. There isn’t a central theory that unites all humans.  

They have a reasonably primitive way to pass knowledge to later generations called writing. As they were discovering their world, they found other humans who evolved on distant continents. They forcibly converted those “other tribes” to their ways of thinking and religions. Improved war technologies helped spread hostile microorganisms and destroyed cultures with better spiritual ideas that could have propelled humanity towards using the “spiritual” powers as we do. That knowledge existed in their holy books for a thousand and a half years, but they do not use it.

The Earth humans have an inkling that they are related to the central supreme power they call God, but can’t figure out how. They can’t know him without imagining seeing him. They don’t understand that human eyes are not the right tool for doing it. They don’t even follow the commandment not to try to make an image of God. They think in words, and words are images.

Earth’s humans must find new, more accurate words to convey the power of “belief” or “faith”. There is a way to communicate with God without words, pictures, computers, and so on.

As I said in the beginning, this is how I assume an Alien describing humanity to his brethren using our language. Yes, the secret is in the language.

Since we are (hopefully) locked up avoiding contact with others, I see an opportunity to think deeply about philosophical questions that perhaps we never considered before. Enjoy.

 

 

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Human Aliens - Bing images